


Hunting

by liquorcanini



Category: Gubat Banwa, Hiraya (Karanduun), Karanduun (Roleplaying Game), Stars Without Brightness
Genre: F/M, found or not?, is inday destined to lose her family in every timeline, is martinez always going to be the one that catches her?, is this why it's all the worse when martinez dies at her hand?, no spoilers since this happens in the first chapter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:35:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27670765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liquorcanini/pseuds/liquorcanini
Summary: Pak-an Gabii and Binayaang Inday hunt. Inday dreams. They're never good.
Relationships: gabiinday
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	Hunting

**Author's Note:**

> It's kinda shit since it's warmup, pero its good material I think. Also, no spoilers for the novel, since this happens in the First Chapter (technically prologue). That's almost done though so yay\

There were nights when she dreamed, and she always dreamed of fire.

She’s never had a good dream. Her dreams all seemed to be omens, all seemed to be corrupted. Nightmares. As if they had risen from her tainted soul, her tainted spirit. To this day, she still wasn’t sure whether she was thankful of her second chance in life or if she abhorred it and wanted to be burned alongside the rest of her village.

Her village. Every dream was of that. Every premonition in the night was of that. The conflagration into the sky, the flames that licked and singed her toes and scarred them forever. Her sister, a young babe, never to have a chance in life.

Gabii had spoken to her about it one time, when they were out hunting. Inday mostly hunted to provide more meat for the eatery, but she secretly appreciated the times Gabii would come out to join her. They worked well together: Inday was great at sniffing out potential game, propping up tracks, and goading their trajectories, while Gabii was great at a bow and arrow, although not as good as with his ginunting and pinunting, which he wielded in tandem like wings.

One time, when she was skinning a salindayaw that they managed to catch, horns cut to be used as barter and weapon hilts, Inday caught Gabii staring. “What, do I have something on me?”

Gabii looked away, and then said, “Did you know that you cry in your sleep?”

Inday lost words. She wanted to respond, but resorted to turning around and continuing to skin the deer. “You watch me when I sleep?”

“You did it last night.”

She chopped the antlers from the deer.

“What did you dream of?” he asked. Regret came all too swiftly.

Inday hacked off both antlers, and said: “My village. Burning. The screams of my sister and mother and father as they were burned alive with their arms cut and their chests flayed. There, you happy?”

Gabii bit his lip, looking down at the bow and arrow he had left on his knees. Inday watched him for a moment, wondering if he was going to speak more. When he didn’t, when he kept his peace, Inday shook her head and went back to skinning the deer.

“I apologize, binukot.”

“Stop calling me binukot,” she replied. “I am not one anymore, and it saddens my heart. It reminds me of a life I will never have again. It reminds me of my father that died protecting our settlement--” She stopped herself before her voice could catch.

“I cannot look at you other than a binukot,” replied Gabii, a slight hint of remorse in his tone.

“Then do not look at me at all.”

It was a silence that killed on the way back into the palisades of Gibankaw. “What did you do when you saw me cry?”

Gabii turned, blinking. “What?”

“When you saw me cry last night. What did you do? Don’t waste both our sunlight by avoiding the truth.”

Gabii sighed, looking away, back to the forest. “I hugged you.”

Inday remembered only one dream that had a better ending than others. The one dream that didn’t end in an orgy of burning agony. The one dream that ended with her enveloped in an infinite star-filled night. 

It was the dream that night. That night when Gabii had hugged her.

When Inday didn’t respond, Gabii shrugged. “I-I don’t know, it seemed to work. You stopped shaking and crying.”

Inday nodded. “Thank you,” she said, lunging forward and throwing herself into his arms. “Go home and be safe Gabii.”  _ I don’t want to lose you too.  _ But the last part she couldn’t find it in herself to say. She didn’t trust her voice, her mouth, to not betray the emotion she had been suppressing all these years. It was as if crying or breaking down about what had happened to another person was a sign of defeat.

Inday walked back to the eatery with the cut up meat of the deer in tow. She wondered if she was going to lose any more family.

  
  
  



End file.
